2020 to today
2020 to today
Section 702 searches, license plate cameras, data center deals, private equity in housing, deaths in ICE custody, and the Epstein files.
Key facts
- The FBI made 278,000 improper searches of Americans' communications under Section 702.
- Cities and counties sign nondisclosure agreements before voting on data centers.
- 269 of the 469 entries on the site fall in this period.
Timeline
29 events in Housing & Private Equity, oldest first
- 2021March 22, 2021Housing & Private Equity
FBI opens about 700 safe deposit boxes its warrant said it could not
The Ninth Circuit finds a Fourth Amendment violation in January 2024.
- June 29, 2021Housing & Private Equity
PennEast: a private pipeline company may condemn state land under a federal certificate
5 to 4.
- 2022Early 2022Housing & Private Equity
Michigan manufactured housing bills die in the Senate after $358,000 goes to the industry PAC
The package had passed the House with bipartisan support and had been negotiated with the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association. The association withdrew its support at the time two Havenpark executives gave $358,000 to its PAC.
- 2023June 3, 2023Housing & Private Equity
Congress approves the Mountain Valley Pipeline and bars court review
Section 324 of the debt ceiling law.
- 2024January 2024Housing & Private Equity
BlackRock buys Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12.5 billion
The acquisition made BlackRock one of the largest owners of infrastructure in the world, with about $150 billion in airports, ports, pipelines, and utilities.
- May 9, 2024Housing & Private Equity
Culley v. Marshall: no right to a prompt hearing when your car is seized
6 to 3. The car had been held 20 months from an innocent owner.
- June 28, 2024Housing & Private Equity
Grants Pass v. Johnson: sleeping outside can be punished with no shelter offered
6 to 3.
- August 2024Housing & Private Equity
Michigan park owner charged criminally for operating without a license
The county prosecutor charged Homes of America's local company over North Morris Estates near Flint, the first criminal charge of its kind against a park owner in Michigan. The park could not get a license because it would not fix its water.
- October 16, 2024Housing & Private Equity
Residents of a Brunswick, Maine park buy it for $26.3 million
The 278 home Linnhaven Mobile Home Park became Blueberry Fields Cooperative, the first purchase under Maine's 2023 opportunity to purchase law. Financing came from a MaineHousing loan and grant, a community loan fund, a bank, and the town.
- December 18, 2024Housing & Private Equity
Senate Budget Committee: home insurance non-renewals spreading
249 million policies; $1 trillion of coastal property at risk of becoming unmortgageable.
- 2025January 16, 2025Housing & Private Equity
Treasury: premiums 8.7 percent above inflation, the riskiest fifth dropped 80 percent more often
246 million policies, 2018 to 2022.
- March 2025Housing & Private Equity
BlackRock-led group agrees to buy the Panama Canal ports for $23 billion
The ports at Balboa and Cristobal sit at the two ends of the canal. The deal was announced as returning the ports to American control. It is a private purchase by an asset manager.
- March 6, 2025Housing & Private Equity
South Dakota bans eminent domain for carbon pipelines
Iowa's governor vetoes the same bill in June.
- July 4, 2025Housing & Private Equity
$2.4 billion in Neighborhood Access and Equity grants rescinded
Syracuse, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Jacksonville.
- July 24, 2025Housing & Private Equity
Executive Order 14321: undo the limits on civil commitment, fund the cities that enforce camping bans
Federal support for housing first ended.
- September 24, 2025Housing & Private Equity
Maine gives park residents a right of first refusal when their park is sold
LD 1145 lets a resident cooperative match any third party offer. LD 1016 puts a transfer fee on purchases by buyers worth more than $50 million and uses it to help at risk residents. Two more laws remove taxes on sales to residents.
- December 9, 2025Housing & Private Equity
Senator Hassan opens an investigation into six corporate owners of manufactured home parks
Letters went to Alden Global Capital, Patriot Holdings, Philips International, Legacy Communities, BoaVida Group, and Sun Communities asking for rent setting policies, fees, maintenance records, evictions, and lease agreements, due January 5, 2026.
- 2025Housing & Private Equity
Private equity backed companies accounted for 54 percent of the largest bankruptcies of 2025
71 percent in consumer discretionary, about 60 percent in manufacturing, 44 percent in healthcare. The same firms are refinancing the debt through about $3 trillion of private credit that regulators do not have visibility into.
- 2026February 5, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Judge orders State Farm to hand over its claims documents in seven days
Oklahoma's attorney general: a pattern of coordinated effort.
- February 27, 2026Housing & Private Equity
GAO: premiums up 25 percent or more after inflation in high risk areas
3 percent nationally; the state pools of last resort growing.
- March 24, 2026Housing & Private Equity
At least $82 billion forfeited since 2000
Half of cash seizures under $1,678; 71 percent of federal forfeitures never see a judge.
- March 30, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Congressman Frost introduces a bill to help residents buy their own manufactured home parks
H.R. 8047, the Promoting Residential Ownership of Manufactured Home Communities Act, is meant to give residents around the country the chance the Brunswick, Maine residents had.
- May 19, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Michigan Senate passes a six bill rewrite of the state's mobile home law
Senate Bills 934 through 939 add enforcement against unlicensed park operators, a modern eviction process, a right of first negotiation for residents when a park is sold, and financing for resident ownership. The first package, drafted in 2021, died in the Senate in 2022 after two Havenpark executives gave $358,000 to the industry's PAC. The bills go to the House.
- May 29, 2026Housing & Private Equity
HUD releases the January 2025 count: 745,652 homeless
266,320 unsheltered; released sixteen months after the count.
- June 24, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Oklahoma sues State Farm under its racketeering law over the Hail Focus Initiative
Replacement-cost coverage sold, undisclosed standards applied.
- July 11, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Ban on large investors buying single family homes becomes law
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law without the president's signature after passing the Senate 85 to 5 and the House 358 to 32 in June. Investors with 350 or more single family homes cannot buy more, starting 180 days after enactment. Build to rent and renovate to rent are exempt, and the seven year sale requirement in the Senate version was dropped.
- July 31, 2026Housing & Private Equity
State regulators: home insurance non-renewals up 96 to 216 percent since 2018
Underwriting profit positive in three of four regions in 2024.
- August 2026Housing & Private Equity
State Farm's documents unsealed: wind and hail the greatest opportunity to impact enterprise results
$1.4 billion less paid out in a year; replacements per repair from 5.6 to 2.
- August 25, 2026Housing & Private Equity
Oklahoma's attorney general loses the runoff for governor by 2,020 votes
To a candidate who called his State Farm suit political.
Stories (12)
- 2005 to 2021How Private Equity Leveraged Buyouts Load Companies with DebtA private equity firm buys a company with borrowed money and puts the debt on the company, not on itself. The workers, the customers, and the pension funds that supplied the money carry the cost. A finance professor who spent decades in the industry and the president of a teachers' union explain where the money goes.Housing & Private Equity
- 2000 to 2026Civil Asset Forfeiture: $82 Billion Seized by Police and Federal Agents Without Criminal ChargesUnder civil forfeiture the government sues the property, not the owner, and keeps it without convicting anyone. The Institute for Justice's count, published March 24, 2026, is at least $82 billion taken since 2000, $57 billion of it by the federal government. Half of the cash seizures in the states that keep records are under $1,678, less than a lawyer costs. In 2021 the FBI opened about 700 safe deposit boxes under a warrant that said it could not, and in 2024 the Supreme Court held that an innocent owner whose car was held for 20 months had no right to a prompt hearing.Housing & Private Equity
- 2007 to 2026Record US Homelessness (771,480 People) and the Supreme Court Ruling Making Sleeping Outside a CrimeOn a single night in January 2024 the government counted 771,480 people homeless in the United States, the most since it began counting, and in January 2025 it counted 745,652, of whom 266,320 were sleeping in places not meant for people. In June 2024 the Supreme Court held that a city may fine and jail people for sleeping outside even when it has no shelter to offer them. In July 2025 the president ordered the attorney general to seek the reversal of court rulings that limit locking people up for mental illness, directed federal money toward cities that enforce camping bans, and ended federal support for the policy of housing people first.Housing & Private Equity
- 2021 to 2026Private Equity Takeovers of Michigan Mobile Home ParksAbout 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes. Since 2020 hedge funds and private equity firms have been buying the parks the homes sit in and raising the rent on people who cannot move. In Michigan the bill that would have limited it died after two executives gave $358,000 to the industry's PAC.Housing & Private Equity
- 2018 to 2026Surging Homeowners Insurance Cancellations and 82% Premium Hikes Across the USA house with a mortgage must be insured, and in a growing part of the country the companies will not sell the insurance. The Treasury's first study of the market, covering 246 million policies from 2018 to 2022, found premiums rising 8.7 percent faster than inflation, and households in the riskiest fifth of the country paying 82 percent more than the safest fifth and being dropped 80 percent more often. The Senate Budget Committee's data from nearly two dozen insurers found the cancellations spreading beyond Florida, California, and Louisiana. California's insurer of last resort went from 141,391 homes in 2015 to 555,868 in March 2025. State regulators' own analysis, published in July 2026, found company-initiated cancellations up between 96 and 216 percent since 2018 depending on the region, and the companies back in profit.Housing & Private Equity
- 2019 to 2025BlackRock's $150 Billion Buyout of Airports, Ports, Pipelines, and Panama Canal TerminalsAfter its environmental investing turned out to be a way to charge higher fees, BlackRock bought Global Infrastructure Partners and with it $150 billion in airports, ports, pipelines, and water systems, then agreed to buy the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. A former BlackRock executive and a researcher on public banking explain what the firm is doing and who carries the risk.Housing & Private Equity
- 2008 to 2025How Wall Street Bundled Single-Family Home Rents into BondsPrivate equity owns about 4 percent of the homes in the country, concentrated in five states, and the money behind it comes from public pension funds, university endowments, and foreign governments. The rent gets bundled into bonds. The performance fees get taxed at 20 percent. The lobbying doubled in four years.Housing & Private Equity
- 1980 to 2025Private Equity Bankruptcies and the $3 Trillion Private Credit MarketPrivate equity backed companies accounted for 54 percent of the largest bankruptcies of 2025. The industry owns a growing share of the homes, the hospitals, and the entry level jobs, and it has built a $3 trillion private credit market outside the view of regulators. The people coming of age now are the ones who inherit it.Housing & Private Equity
- 2022 to 2026Private Equity Rent Hikes in Florida Retirement ParksAt a 55 and over park in central Florida, Legacy Communities talked residents out of the inflation clause in their leases and the rent more than doubled. Down the road at a Sun Communities park the lot rent is up almost 50 percent since 2014. In Brunswick, Maine, residents facing the same thing bought their park.Housing & Private Equity
- 2008 to 2026Right to Repair, Software Locks, and Manufacturers Controlling Products After You Buy ThemLouis Rossmann started fixing MacBooks in 2008 and spent fifteen years finding out why the parts were so hard to get. The answer led him from repair to ownership to surveillance: products that stop working when the maker stops supporting them, cars that report your driving to your insurer, phone carriers that sold your location to bounty hunters, and camera networks pushed through city councils by hiring the people on them.Housing & Private Equity
- March to July 2026The 2026 Law Barring Big Investors from Buying Single-Family HomesIn March 2026 Senator Elizabeth Warren said the country was short 7 million homes and the median first time buyer was 40 years old. That month the Senate passed a bill barring investors that own 350 or more single family homes from buying any more. It became law on July 11, 2026 without the president's signature, with the build to rent industry exempted.Housing & Private Equity
- 2020 to 2026Unsealed State Farm Records Show a Nationwide Program to Cut Roof Replacements by $1.4 BillionIn August 2026 a judge in Comanche County, Oklahoma unsealed State Farm's internal documents in a lawsuit by a couple whose hail claim was denied. A 2020 planning document called wind and hail the greatest opportunity to impact enterprise results, roof claims being more than half of the company's weather payouts; a program began in Dallas County that June and was nationwide by the end of the year; managers had to approve any full roof replacement; each percentage point fewer replacements was calculated at $78.8 million a year; and the company recorded a $1.4 billion drop in payouts in the first year, with full replacements falling from 5.6 for every repair to 2. The attorney general sued the company under the state racketeering law on June 24, 2026. Two months later he lost the Republican runoff for governor by 2,020 votes to a candidate who had called the lawsuit political, who took donations from at least nine people listed as State Farm agents or employees, one of them a State Farm corporate lawyer listed as an agent, and who proposes to lower premiums by limiting lawsuits against insurers.Housing & Private Equity